Boston Bruins: The Gauntlet Begins Saturday Night in Toronto
By Dan Watkins
The Boston Bruins have two games remaining on their five game road trip. The first of the two comes Saturday night in Toronto. Saturday’s game begins an unrelenting stretch of games with the end of the regular season in sight.
44 days, 24 games. That is what separates the Boston Bruins from the end of the 2017-18 NHL Regular Season.
With the team coming off three straight days without game action, the coaching staff made sure rest was the priority, holding no official team practices held Wednesday and Thursday. The reason being: the team has only one more set of back-to-back off days between now and the end of the season.
The grind of March and early April for the Bruins will consist of four straight weeks playing every other night to go along with three back-to-back sets sprinkled in as well. The upcoming schedule will test the Bruins depth, which right now on the back is the least of the teams problems with nine healthy defensemen, might lead to a smaller move or two to bolster the forward group for the stretch run.
Not only is there a plethora of games in the next month plus, but excluding maybe two of these contests, all the team left on the schedule are either currently in a playoff spot, or within a few points of being in one. It goes to show that there are no easy nights in the NHL.
The reason that the Bruins have this daunting stretch run coming up is simple, they’ve played less games to this point than the rest of the league. Besides Boston, only the Florida Panthers have played less than 60 games so far (58).
The good news obviously is that the Bruins have games in hand, so they will control their own destiny as far as playoff seeding goes. The team currently sits three points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning with three games in hand. The Atlantic Division foes will also face-off twice before the seasons ends, with both games taking place in Tampa.
Gameday Notes
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Newly acquired defenseman Nick Holden will not be making his Bruins debut tonight against the Maple Leafs. As Bruce Cassidy stated on Thursday when he spoke to reporters, it would take the veteran blue liner a few practices with his new teammates before seeing game action. He skated with Adam McQuaid during morning rushes Saturday.
Kevan Miller (Upper Body) will be making his return to the lineup Saturday night for the first time in over three weeks. He will be back in his usual spot next to Matt Grzleyck on the team’s third D pairing.
Based off morning rushes, David Krejci and Riley Nash will go back to their usual spots as well. Krejci between Jake Debrusk and Ryan Spooner, Nash skating with Danton Heinen and David Backes. The two centers were flip flopped Tuesday night in the 3rd period against Edmonton when the team needed a jolt.
Second year phenom Auston Matthews will miss tonight’s game with a shoulder injury. He is considered “Day-to-Day” for the Maple Leafs. The 20 year old is Toronto’s leading scorer with 50 points (28-22-50) in 53 games.
Tuukka Rask will start tonight for Boston.
Next: Bruins win in Edmonton was a statement
Saturday’s Projected Lines
Marchand – Bergeron- Pastrnak
DeBrusk – Krejci – Spooner
Heinen – Nash – Backes
Schaller – Kuraly – Acciari
Chara – McAvoy
Krug – Carlo
Grzelcyk – Miller
Rask